Payment in Blood (Inspector Lynley Book 2)

The career of playwright Joy Sinclair comes to an abrupt end on an isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands when someone drives and eighteen-inch dirk through her neck. Called upon to investigate the case in a country where they have virtually no authority, aristocratic Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, grapple for both a motive and a murderer. Emotions run deep in this highly charged drama, for the list of suspects soon includes Britain's foremost actress, its most successful theatrical producer, and the woman Lynley loves. He and Havers must tread carefully through the complicated terrain of human relationships, while they work to solve a case rooted in the darkest corners of the past and the unexplored regions of the human heart. From the Paperback edition. From Publishers Weekly Placing her own stamp on the traditions of Dorothy Sayers and P. D. James, George ( A Great Deliverance ) supports her vividly characterized story of murder and espionage with elements of theatrical life, British class-consciousness and love gone awry. Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, eighth Earl of Asherton, is sent to Scotland to investigate the murder of playwright Joy Sinclair. Her death had occurred as a company of stage greats, gathered by eminent producer Stuart Rintoul, Lord Stinhurst, was reading through the revised script of her latest play. Lynley's disquiet at being assigned to a case in Scotland is exacerbated when he discovers that his close friend, Lady Helen Clyde, was also on hand, in the company of director Rhys Davis-Jones. Learning that the revised play touched on secrets that nearly all the assembled cast might consider deserving of murder, Lynley struggles to balance peer loyalty and his personal anguish with objective police work. Assisted by fiercely egalitarian Sergeant Barbara Havers and by forensics expert and friend Simon St. James, Lynley forges through a thicket of deceptions, personal and nation-wide, to solve the mysteries of the first murder and one that follows, though not the mysteries of his heart. 50,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal The much acclaimed author of A Great Deliverance delivers her challenging second novel--a literate, vastly detailed, and intricately characterized piece which progresses from a frigid Scottish manor house/hotel to a swarming, theatrical London. Scotland Yard's Thomas Lynley (series detective and Earl of Asherton), unexpectedly assigned to a gory stabbing murder, uncovers deeply hidden family secrets and various psychological convolutions among suspects, but allows personal jealously to color his choice of prime suspect. A bit mechanical in places, and slow-moving in others, but steadily absorbing and masterful overall. The upcoming author tour should boost demand --especially from readers of George's first. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. At the great Scottish manor house of Westerbrae, a London theatrical company gathers to hear a controversial new play. By the evening's end, the beautiful playwright has been brutally murdered in her bed-and Scotland Yard Inspector Thomas Lynley becomes immediately embroiled in a crime whose genesis is tangled in the obligations of love and the consequences of betrayal. With orders to keep the case from the press as long as possible because of the notoriety of the principal suspects, Lynley and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers travel to the isolated estate. Among their suspects: the most powerful theatrical producer in Britain, two of the nation's most beloved stars, and the woman Lynley loves. For Lynley, the investigation requires all the delicacy he can muster-and it forces him to face a personal dilemma as well. For present at Westerbrae on the night of the murder is Helen Clyde, a woman with whom Lynley shares a complicated history and an enduring friendship that has deepened into love. The fact that she occupied the room next to the murder victim cannot be overlooked. The fact that she did not occupy it alone cannot be ignored. Fighting to overcome a jealousy that threatens to cloud his judgment and emotions so troubled they could lead to fatal mistakes, Lynley finds himself beset at every turn by family scandals, fierce theatrical rivalries, and shattering revelations. When the living occupy his thoughts more powerfully than the dead, the question becomes whether he can walk the treacherous line between the clinical detachment of a professional investigator and the seething turmoil of a lover. For in the murder house, motives run very deep indeed. Outraged over what she sees as the kid-glove handling of an upper-crust murder, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers strikes out on her own, putting her career at risk and questioning her deepest professional loyalty as she begins a relentless search into the secrets that haunt not one family but two, and hold them to silence. Filled with menace and suspense, Payment in Blood is as much rooted in the unexplored regions of the human heart as in the unforgiving Scottish countryside, where the blood that binds can also kill. “The Lynley books constitute the smartest, most gratifyingly complex and impassioned mysteries now being published.”— Entertainment Weekly The career of playwright Joy Sinclair comes to an abrupt end on an isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands when someone drives an eighteen-inch dirk through her neck. Called upon to investigate the case in a country where they have virtually no authority, aristocratic Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, grapple for both a motive and a murderer. Emotions run deep in this highly charged drama, for the list of suspects soon includes Britain’s foremost actress, its most successful theatrical producer, and the woman Lynley loves. He and Havers must tread carefully through the complicated terrain of human relationships while they work to solve a case rooted in the darkest corners of the past and the unexplored regions of the human heart.